THE NEW ZEALAND OPERA SOCIETY

The New Zealand Trio, Ensemble in Residence at The University of Auckland, is delighted to announce their second concert of the 2005 season in the School of Music on 28 July at 8 pm.

The programme will include four works, carefully chosen to produce what should be an evening of satisfying and well-rounded musical enjoyment: Beethoven’s Trio in C Minor, Opus 1, No. 3, the Auckland premiere of New Zealand Composer Gillian Whitehead’s new Piano Trio; Toru Takemitsu’s Between Tides, and the Robert Schumann Trio in D Minor, Opus 63, No.1.

Beethoven  was already beginning to push emotional and dynamic boundaries at the age of 25 when he wrote the C Minor Trio, which is also innovative in giving the individual instruments more  independence than before.

Gillian Whitehead’s Piano Trio will have received its world premiere only four days beforehand in Tauranga.  The composer writes “the ideas behind the piece have to do with changing perspectives of patterns in water – in the bubbling of streams, the tumble of a waterfall, in the spiraling eddies where stream meets lake at sunrise.”

Gillian is one of the most important composers working in the Australasian region. In 1999 she was awarded the MNZM for services to music, and in 2000 was honoured by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand as one of five inaugural
Laureates.

This composition was commissioned by the New Zealand Trio with a grant from Creative New Zealand, and represents one of the major initiatives undertaken by the ensemble to encourage New Zealand composers.

Toru Takemitsu is arguably the most influential of all contemporary Japanese composers, and was instrumental in introducing Eastern and Western audiences to the music and sounds of each other’s cultures. Between Tides fits into his evocative later style, which captures the images of painting, dreams and nature in sound.
 
Robert Schumann’s  piano trio has it all:  passionate opening, driving rhythms, pure lyricism and a triumphal close in the key of D major.

The New Zealand Trio has just returned from a triumphant collaboration with the Michael Hill International Violin Competition and tours to the US, UK and Australia as well as concerts in Lower Hutt and Tauranga. Upcoming engagements include concerts in Hamilton, New Plymouth and Wellington, participation in the Nelson Composers Workshop and the world premiere of New Zealand composer Gareth Farr’s currently-being-written Triple Concerto with the Christchurch Symphony in October.

The New Zealand Trio - Ensemble in Residence at the University of Auckland
Justine Cormack, violin
Ashley Brown, cello
Sarah Watkins, piano

8 pm Thursday 28 July 2005 at the School of Music, 6 Symonds St.

Book now at Response ph (09) 300 3700. Tickets may also be available at the door if not sold out prior to the event.